Review: EDINBURGH 2024: MURDER, SHE DIDN'T WRITE, Assembly George Square - Gordon Aikman Theatre

“Is that the killer hiding in the tech booth?”

Murder, She Didn’t Write is an improvised murder mystery show that has been welcoming audiences for the past ten years at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. As someone who has a love for both improvisational comedy and murder mysteries who had yet to see the show, I was very interested in seeing it at this year’s Fringe. We are introduced to the world of this murder mystery by Detective Hubert “Hugh” Dunnit who acts as the narrator to the tale, having the ability to “pause” and “Play” the mystery at will.

An audience member is selected at random to be the detective’s assistant, someone who is so deeply undercover that they no longer know who they are (quite clever!), and they are given multiple choice questions based on audience suggestions to decide some aspects of the murder mystery we are about to witness. At this performance, our setting was a game of Bingo, the significant object/clue was French toast and the unusual quality of the object/clue was that it was English, leading to our title, “The Case of the English French Toast.”

It is at this point that we are introduced to our characters - Gloria Gold, Rodger Green, Lady Violet, Terrence Organ, Ruby Redd and Barry Blue. The assigned audience member playing the assistant chooses the victim and killer using coloured cards - the cast knows who the victim and the murderer are, but the audience is left in the dark. From here, each of the performers take on their role within the murder mystery and the real show begins! The set itself is lovely, made to look like one of the cosy rooms one may find themselves in for a murder mystery like The Mousetrap. 

Unfortunately, I found myself struggling to either be invested in the mystery of the murder of Ruby Redd - who was “French toasted to death” - or laughing at the jokes made by the performers. Scenes are cut off by Detective Dunnit before they can really get interesting, which is a shame as there were moments you could see the performers just starting to get excited about a particular plot point before they had to move on to a completely new bit. We never learn anything about the characters, making it impossible to determine just who could have been responsibly for the death of Ruby Redd.

It may have just been at the particular performance I was at, but the energy of the show was strangely sexual. An entire section was dedicated to the different characters (though they may have broken character at this point) kissing one another, and another involved two characters having sex on a table. There was also an entire bit about the magician, Lady Violet, putting rabbits “in” people, and she is frequently pulling rabbits out from under her skirts. The performer playing Lady Violet was, however, a highlight of the show, making it quite entertaining whenever she came on stage.

Murder, She Didn’t Write is a show with an interesting concept and some talented performers, but the performance I saw failed to capture the essence of a silly version of a murder mystery as I’d hoped it would. For a show that has been at the Fringe for a decade, I would have expected a bit more from the troupe as a whole. 

Murder, She Didn’t Write ran until 26 August at Assembly George Square - Gordon Aikman Theatre.